The Unfortunate Life of Scarlett Winters
by zelectrodez
Summary: There are a lot of things in life you just can't change no matter how many times you wish otherwise.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** This is my first fanfiction and the first chapter might be a little confusing (less confusing due to Comakiller), but I hope you enjoy!

**Chapter 1 The Terrible Introduction of Scarlett Winters**

My name is Scarlett Winters. I could go on about my hobbies or maybe my sorry excuse for a family, but alas let me tell you what I'm exclaiming for the whole world to hear.

"I hate you James Potter!'

"Ooo Winters what's with the proclamation?!" said James Potter II.

"You spilled ink all over my homework and clothes when you were running around like a lunatic!" I say with as much venom as a basilisk.

This is just one of the many examples of why I don't like James Potter, as the name itself is not as self-explanatory as Cain Dolohov's. I know what you might be thinking, Potter, isn't that the last name of the Boy-Who-Lived-Then-Defeated-Voldemort-Again? The answer is yes. So why wouldn't James S. Potter be good too? In all right to the Potter family all that good skipped James. No, this is not when I say that I don't actually mean it, because I secretly like/love him, because I most serenely do not. James Potter just isn't a good guy and I have so much proof I could write a novel on it. Since you're all very curious about James Potter, let's take a flashback to first year where I unfortunately first meet him.

"Uncle you are a lifesaver! I could just kiss you!"

"Stop being over dramatic, I knew your mother would forget to take you to the station or be in no right to drive you."

"Yeah, but I was worrying! I thought I would end up missing the train and have to spend another year with her."

"She is not so bad Scarlett..."

"Yes she is! She drinks and smokes all day and then gives readings to unfortunate tourists. At night her group of weirdos shows up and they discuss the signs and stuff! Want to know why I'm so tan? I spend as little time as possible at my house, Uncle I could go on and on about the reasons I should not live there."

That's when I heard a snicker coming from the passenger seat of the car. That stupid annoying sound could only come from one person, my evil cousin who finds my pain amusing. Like the time I broke my arm falling from a tree, and he laughed until his gut hurt, or the time he hit me in the face with a quaffle and I lost five teeth, and he keep showing me what my face looked like before and after it got smashed.

That's my cousin, the ever so lovely Nelson Winters, youngest of three siblings. I loathed him from his parted down the middle brown hair, to his soft menacing brown eyes. He had his 5th year Ravenclaw Prefect Badge pinned to his blue sweater vest. How he ever got it? Well that is actually quite simple; He sucks up to his officials especially the new head of Ravenclaw, Prof. Kalechlight, and seems to be, to other people, simply charming. I don't understand how he was never a Slytherin.

Anywho back to the flashback at hand, I simply ignored my cousin until we got to the station. He was bugging me until he saw the girl he liked, I pity her, and darted off.

"I guess it's just you and me Uncle." I said but was met with no response as he was talking with someone. I had already been through the barrier before when I went with my uncle to pick up my cousins, so I had no problem finding it. What I was not expecting was to bump into someone.

The boy I bumped into had messy black hair that looked to be untamable and a scowl on his face. "Hey watch it!" The boy said without taking his eyes off the barrier.

"I would watch it if you would get out of the way!" I said right back in my sassy 11 year old voice.

He turned his head and looked straight into my eyes, and my icy blue locked with his hazel. He looked frightened. I was confused, was it my eyes, because they were intimidating, or maybe it was my wild red hair, or maybe I'm just being stupid, it could be something else? He looked around and then he looked back at me.

"Um, can you go with me through the barrier..?" He said in a quiet voice that sounded as if he was ashamed. It clicked right then, he was scared to go through the seemingly solid wall. I mean, it is quite understandable, but where was his family?

"Don't you have family who could go with you?" I said.

He then puffed up his chest, "I don't need them to go through with me I'm not scared."

"Who are you telling that to, me or yourself? You're weird; you would rather go through with a stranger, than with someone you actually know? Are you stupid?" I was genuinely curious, and it was quite funny to watch his face turn red.

"Fine don't help me then," he said and turned away. He seemed to be shaking, and I was really hoping he wasn't crying.

"Fine, I'll go with you! I mean soon enough we won't be strangers right?" I said with defeat.

He turned around with no tears in his eyes and a wide grin on his face; I was really starting to hate this kid.

"Okay let's go!" He then positioned himself beside me and took my hand. This kid is seriously messed up in the head. He looked at me expectantly and I knew he was waiting for me to take the first step. So I did, and soon we were running toward the solid looking wall and I was glad I wasn't taking it alone, because no matter how many times I had run through it there is always a little bit of fear in the back of my mind. He squeezed my hand really hard right before we crossed through, one hand on my cart the other in his hand, and I thought I had found my first friend.

We were met by a ton of people scrambling around giving hugs and kisses and friends squealing, asking how each other's summers went, and I couldn't keep the grin off my face. The kid let go of my hand suddenly and was ambushed by a kid with red hair.

"James where were you, did you get scared and need to go through with a girl?" he said in a mocking voice," I saw you were holding hands!" The redhead kept talking and talking and it was making me dizzy, and more people surrounded us.

Then apparently James shouted, "I wasn't the one who was scared! She was and so I helped her out, I mean she almost looked as if she was going to cry or something, so I couldn't leave her!"

The redhead started to laugh as if it was the funniest thing in the world but all I could do was stare at James. He lied to save face, and he had the nerve to laugh with his friend at me. I felt red hot with anger, and my face must have been too, but they took it as embarrassment and laughed harder yet. I shot James a look before I walked away; it was not of hate that was bubbling in me; no it was of betrayal.

I learned fast that rumors spread incredibly fast at Hogwarts, and I became known as the girl who was afraid of the barrier. On the way to Hogwarts I sat with some 3rd years and a couple 1st years, but I didn't make any friends like my cousins said they had. I sat with some other awkward kids when crossing the Black Lake, but could hear James and his friends laughing the whole way.

When the hat was placed on my head, it was stumped as to where to put me saying I could be a Ravenclaw like my mother or a Slytherin like my father, to which I protested profusely. He decided to place me in Gryffindor saying I had something neither of my parents had and me ever curious asked what it was, but the hat being a riddle master said I must find it in my own way and own time, for it is not something that can be told, but something that must be found within. I wanted to hit something for the second time that day when the hat called out "Gryffindor!"

****I heard Redhead whisper something to James Potter (who was being whispered about since his name was called. The idiot just had to be the son of the boy-who-lived) and he laughed and looked at me. It had already spread throughout the table by the time I sat down that I was a scaredy cat as they called it, and people were smirking and giggling all about me. I couldn't help but wish I had never meet James Bloody Potter!


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2 Not So Bad Day

With the Potter business behind us, we can actually get to the real introduction. I am a 5th year Gryffindor student that tends to get moody when my friends are chiding me to get my homework done and complaining about how hungry they are.

"Are you done with your homework yet I am soo hungry!" Jolie Hopkin exclaimed from where she was lounging on her bed flipping through her Quidditch Magazine. If I knew her at all, she was not looking in it for the latest tips, but at the quidditch players. This is just one example of a student who is going to fail their O.W.L.S. because instead of studying, she was looking at guys on paper and O.W.L.S. were just around the corner! May goes by fast.

She was looking at me with an expected look. I didn't like the look that her huge sea green eyes were giving me, and I knew something bad was going to happen to me if I didn't answer the correct way. That was when I was saved by my vane angle.

"Let her get her homework finished. I'll go with you after I finish putting on my mascara." Giovanna Dobson was probably one of the most vane people I knew, but she wasn't a bad person. She grew up with parents that were all about looks and salads, as one parent was a model while the other one was a photographer for Witch Weekly. I can thank her for telling me what clothes matched and what didn't, since my mom wasn't much of a help in that category for all her clothes are usually mismatched. She is tall, around 5'9", and has a slender body, and a good rack by guys standards.

She sticks her head out the bathroom door, her sharp lips poised in a smirk as she looks at me. Her smoky grey eyes unnerving at the lusty way she is looking at me and it makes me squirm a little.

"You know who is going to be there right?" She eyes me up and down then whispers in the most seductive voice, "Brian Paxton."

With one swift move I throw a pillow at her face, but feel the heat climbing my face at the name of my crush. I'm happy that it hits dead on but soon regret it when I see the look on her face. I am so dead. That is my last thought before instinct takes over, and I run from the room in my cozy clothes.

"Come back here you wrench! Some of my makeup came off, I will make you pay!" She shouted after me as I ran for the stairs and shouted back, "That is just telling you, you put on far too much makeup for a pillow to take it off with one hit!"

I can hear Jolie laughing her ass off as I make it down the stairs. I'm headed out the porthole when I smack into someone, I should have known this was not going to be my day.

First I had nightmares, then I tripped on the way to my first class because I was running, and then got yelled at for being late. And now, I am running for my life with a mad women coming after me.

I hear a deep chuckle, from the person I ran into, that makes me want to throw up the very little food I have in my stomach...Potter. That one person can make my day go from bad to worse in just one little sound.

"You have a knack for not watching where you are going," he says with a smirk planted on his

I'm-sexy-and-I-know-it face. I am about to retort when I hear a banshee screaming my name and I know that now is not the time to get in a fight with another person.

"Well bye Potter, have a nice day!" I run out of the common room at full speed until I realize what I had just said. Did I just tell that arse to have a nice day? I have to go back and say something witty and mean or he will think I went soft!

While thinking about my obvious predicament I forgot my other one, until it hits me right in the back. Did I ever tell you I have strong recommendations for Vanna to play American Football? Well I guess I'm telling you now as I fall to the ground, get real friendly with the floor.

"I surrender! I'm sorry! I'll give you back massages, foot massages! I'll buy you all the butterbeer you want, just get off of me and don't kill me!"

When she got off me and helped me up the right side of my face felt as if I had been smacked with a quaffle again. I even felt slightly dizzy, but then again I messed with something I should not have, and that's Vanna's face, so I guess I pay the price.

When my eyes finally focus I see that she is smiling at me. Bipolar much? "What are you grinning at?

"Well your face looks quite funny and you surrendered immediately, so this is a pretty funny moment for me." My right cheek must be really red, I wonder if I broke it?

"Well I'm happy someone is enjoying my pain!"

"Oi, don't shout in the corridors!" Said a cheerful voice. These happy people were really pissing me off.

Of course when I turned, my face was stuffed with brown curly hair and a body hugging me, shaking with laughter. I pushed her off and grumbled, "I need better friends."

"No, you don't!" Jolie said cheerfully.

"I'm pretty positive I do!" I glaringly say as I blow my wild red hair from my eyes and start rubbing my throbbing cheek.

"Uh huh, well I hope that works out for, you finding better friends and all. I'm hungry though like I said before this whole thing happened, but now I am double hungry and I know you both are too."

Jolie looked at Vanna, "Why don't you and crazy go up and get presentable, and I'll go save us some seats with a good view of Brian." She winked at me, and in that moment I really wished I had another pillow.

We all agreed and separated. Vanna redid her eyes and combed through her long, wavy, golden locks (sometimes the world is just cruel). I just racked through my hair with my fingers and put on a less wrinkled shirt.

We headed down to the Great Hall without one encounter of James, so it made for a good walk. The food was good and we sat by the rest of our group, which consisted of people from all of the houses.

After the War, people were wondering how to get rid of separation of houses, without getting rid of the houses. There had been ideas thrown around without any action, until Hinse Haughting stepped into the picture and became Headmaster. He told us after our first meal, when I was in 2nd year, that after schedules were handed out you could sit wherever you wanted. Many people per say where shocked at what a simple solution that was to encourage the students to sit with other peers, that people started calling him a genius. I thought he was a loon the first time I saw him, but I guess never judge a book by its cover.

After dinner I headed up to the dorm and then went to the common room to finish my homework. I was just about done when a body collided with my table and spilled ink everywhere. Lets just say I did not keep to my plan and here we are back to where the story began..

"I hate you James Potter!"

"Ooo Winters, what's with the proclamation?!" said James Potter II.

"You spilled ink all over my homework and clothes when you were running around like a lunatic!" I say with as much venom as a basilisk.

"I see you are the same as ever." He said smiling like Satan. That was until a redhead collided with him. (I now know his name is Fred Weasley II.) James then ungracefully fell to the floor with Fred on top of him which gave me much pleasure, because Fred is a beater and probably weighs a lot more that Vanna did when she plowed me over.

"Thank you for that Fred." I said while cleaning up the area with my wand and packing up my things. "Well goodnight boys. Potter I wish you the worst dreams. Fred I wish you the sweetest." I wink at him before I head upstairs to get some well needed rest from a very long day of school.

"What the bloody hell was that?" I hear Fred ask before I can no longer hear any noise from the common room. This day may not have turned out so bad after all.


End file.
